Pachinko boss reflects on "emotional" season 2 finale: "When is it too much?"

Noa discovered this from his girlfriend Akiko, before confronting Hansu himself, and getting him to reveal the truth, in a hugely emotional sequence which changed the course of his life forever.

Speaking with Deadline, creator and showrunner Soo Hugh has broken down the shooting of these emotional scenes, saying: "Kang Tae Ju (Noa) is just an extraordinary actor, and that was actually a really hard day shooting, he had to leave set a few times because it was so emotional for him.

"We always ask actors to give us the mild, medium and jalapeno versions of each scene. We say, let’s do the mild version, give us the baseline version, and then give us the jalapeno version, where you dial it up.

"Once he had gotten to the jalapeno version and started, his body started shaking."

Hugh continued: "At some point, you’re asking, what are we putting this person through? I asked him: 'Do you want to stop? Should we just cut?' He said: 'No, I need to do this, I just need a minute.'

"You have moments like that on set where you realise, in some ways, it’s not just acting, it’s a whole history of a person coming out."

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Of the finale as a whole, Hugh said: "That finale, it was tough, and one of the questions is, when is it too much?

"I love melodrama. I don’t feel ashamed saying I write melodrama, but I think there is that line you can cross, and it becomes a little bit too much.

"And so that was really a big question for that episode: When do you cross that line?"

Fans are now left waiting in hope that Pachinko is officially renewed for a third season, in order to adapt the rest of Min Jin Lee's 2017 novel.

The show's executive producers have revealed that Hugh has already started preparing for where season 3 would go - here's hoping those plans get to be realised.

Pachinko seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream now on Apple TV+. Sign up to Apple TV+ now.

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